Expert Session: Building in the Margins. Ișé Owó: The Works of Our Hands
We've examined the ground. We've named the cracks in the foundation, the gaps in power, connectivity, data, and governance. Now we ask a different question: what are we building anyway?
Because the truth is, people are building. Across Nigeria and across Africa, builders are not waiting for perfect conditions. They are improvising. Adapting. Creating with whatever is within reach. This is Ișé Owó, the works of our hands, and it has always been the African way.
In a landscape defined by constraint, something remarkable is happening. Developers are training models on modest hardware. Startups are solving local problems that global AI ignores. Designers are crafting tools that work on low bandwidth and in local languages. Researchers are producing world-class work from underfunded labs. The margins are not empty. They are full of makers.
But building in the margins comes with real questions. How sustainable is innovation built on hustle alone? What does it take to move from surviving to thriving? How do we build systems, not just products? And how do we ensure that the people doing the work are also the ones who benefit from it?
This Expert Session brings the builders themselves into the room. Not to celebrate struggle, but to examine it honestly, share what's working, and imagine what becomes possible when constraint meets collective ingenuity.
Together, we'll explore:
Building with what we have What does AI development actually look like in Nigeria today? What tools, workarounds, and innovations are builders using to create within real constraints?
From hustle to sustainability How do we move beyond survival mode and build AI ventures, careers, and ecosystems that last?
Local problems, local solutions What are the uniquely African challenges that only African builders can solve, and what does that work look like in practice?
Skills, pathways, and access Who is doing the work? How are people entering the AI space, and what barriers still stand in the way?
Ownership and value How do we ensure that African builders own what they create and capture the value of their labour in a global AI economy?
As with every AI Salon, this gathering will be intimate, interactive, and deeply conversational. We invite developers, designers, founders, researchers, creators, and anyone whose hands are already in the work of building Africa's AI future, from the margins and toward the centre.
Ișé Owó. The work of our hands is enough. Let's build.
Space is limited. Your registration responses help us curate a room as resourceful and resilient as the builders in it.
Hosted by
Francis Sani,
Victor (O), Babatunde,
Oluwarotimi Odediran,
AI Salon,
Oasis School of Philosophy